Best is to just watch this YouTube video and make up your own mind.

The mountains of trash we throw out every year are choking our waterways and landfills; and what about the floating trash islands in the ocean, we are not doing the Erath or ourselves a service by being careless consumers. We do not need to purchase new clothes to stay in fashion just as soon as a new trend emerges. We do not need to update our car on a yearly basis or keep up with the latest gadget. There is no need to wear sacks or be a Luddite about it, we just need to be smarter than the latest advertising campaign that tells us that we cannot live without such or such.

Let’s live being fashion by being just plain stylish, classic clothes with classic cuts always do the job and we won’t have to be fashion victims.

Things we can do to avoid consumerism:

Turn off TV, record your favourite programs and replay them without the ads, this way you may only watch what you want without the brain washing of commercial TV

Have a budget and stick to it.

Make a list of food you need and plan your weekly menus in advance. You will spend less this way and you will not let food go off.

 Buy a little less than what you think you need and stretch it.

 Only allow yourself one small treat a week.

Learn to mend clothes and alter them, it is a lot more economical and less wasteful than always buying new.  Become familiar with Ebay and snag yourself some amazing bargains.

Check out garage sales or thrift shops, often you can find new or nearly new at a fraction of the price.

Don’t buy new books, borrow from your local library or join a book exchange in your area. You could save a few trees this way as well as supporting great institutions like the local library.

This goes to for the newspapers, read them online or at the library.

Forget the car, ride on buses or get a bicycle, it is better for your health and fitness. Driving a car in the city is a major stress factor, by taking buses you get to know the city and you can relax.

Buy your music online, this way you bypass the whole CD production, printing of labels and shipping. You will save a lot of resources.

The same goes for movies, they are easy enough to purchase online.

Learn to see how you can buy less, when you see this really amazing bargain for yet another pair of boots you should get because they are 50% off.

There is nothing new in the search for happiness.

Neither is there any “secret” doctrine or teachings that will give you instant happiness. There are however many clues left by ancient and modern wise individuals giving a little insight and showing us the way to leading happier lives. Some of those sayings are so old that their origins are lost in antiquity. This doesn’t seem to matter, there are still as valid today as they were originally.

Old proverbs and sayings can be the key to happiness, they are little pieces of wisdom to remind us of what is important. More often than not we will remember some little piece of wisdom dispensed when we were children, it is usually meant as a reminder for deeper thinking.

IT IS NOT SELF INDULGENT TO SEEK HAPPINESS BUT A HUMAN DUTY, a happy life is what we should all seek, not through a filling of the senses but as a ” way of being” .

I selected a few of the proverbs that I grew up with and a few that seem to have come up since [Yoda]. Old proverbs and saying have a way of being in fashion for a time then return to obscurity for a while. A lot of the more modern sayings are just recycled ancient ones adapted to fit our times.

 Here is an example of the recycled saying:

• “Things can never touch the soul, but stand inert outside it, so that disquiet can arise only from fancies within”. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

• “There’s nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”. Hamlet [Act 2 scene2]

• As man thinketh so he is

• You are what you think you are

These are the more common proverbs and sayings I came accross. Stay tuned for my interpretation of those sayings in a later posting. I added the origins of the saying wherever I could do so, but I think at lot of the more common ones have been appropriated or adapted somewhere along the line.

• “The one being carried does not realize how far away the town is.” [Nigeria]

• All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are moveable, and those that move. [Arab]

• Throw dirt enough, and some will stick.

• Trust in God, but tie your camel. (Arabian)

• It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. Confucius

• Half a loaf is still better than no bread” Irish

• “Put a silk dress on a goat and it remains a goat” Irish

• “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leasds to suffering” Yoda

• “Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin, the fear of loss is the path to the dark side” yoda

• Never look a gift horse in the mouth

• Cut your coat according to the cloth

• Never let the sun set on angry heart

• In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

• It is no use crying over spilt milk.

• Old friends and old wine are best

• Too many cooks spoil the broth.

• What can’t be cured must be endured.

• It is better to stay silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

• A stitch in time saves nine

• There’s no use in flogging (beating)a dead horse.

• Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.

• Respect yourself and others will respect you. Confucius

• A fool despises good counsel, but a wise man takes it to heart. Confucius

• A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Lao Tzu

It is so easy to blame fate or God or the Universe for something not quite going the way we would wish it to go, but how can you tell that this life and this moment is not the very best for you?
A while back I was on my way to meet friends for the week end and I had to drive quite a distance when my car just stopped: all the electrics went and I had to call the NRMA [ roadside assistance here in OZ]. My poor car was put on a tow truck and taken back to town, my week end was canceled. After moping around for a minute or two I decided that there was absolutely nothing I could do, no car and no public transport, so I stayed home with some videos and a tub of ice cream, things were looking pretty good already.
I was well ensconced in my sofa when my door bell rang, a very old friend I had not seen in years tracked me down,we had not seen each other in a couple of years and lost touch as we both moved house. Had I been away I would not have seen him again as he was only in town for a day. My week end in Byron Bay was postponed, but I did catch up with a dear friend. This could not have happened if I had been away.

I came across this following story a few years ago and I wanted to use it to illustrate a very simple Life principle: you make your own luck.

Good luck, bad luck

There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer’s neighbours sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?” A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbours congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, “Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?”
Then, when the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?”
Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer’s son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck?
Who knows?
Everything that seems on the surface to be an evil may be a good in disguise. And everything that seems good on the surface may really be an evil. So we are wise when we leave it to God to decide what is good fortune and what misfortune, and thank him that all things turn out for good with those who love him.
Author Unknown
Create your own luckClick Here!

You may already have everything you need

Be grateful for the kindly friends that walk along your way;
Be grateful for the skies of blue that smile from day to day;
Be grateful for the health you own, the work you find to do,
For round about you there are men less fortunate than you.

Be grateful for the growing trees, the roses soon to bloom,
The tenderness of kindly hearts that shared your days of gloom;
Be grateful for the morning dew, the grass beneath your feet,
The soft caresses of your babes and all their laughter sweet.

Acquire the grateful habit, learn to see how blest you are,
How much there is to gladden life, how little life to mar!
And what if rain shall fall today and you with grief are sad;
Be grateful that you can recall the joys that you have had.

~ Edgar Guest

Take the issue of weight for example: at some stage in your life you started to believe that you were unloved and maybe unlovable, it felt safe to eat and the extra weight just kept things rolling along nicely. This is not necessarily a conscious thought, all you know is that for some reason you crave food in times of stress, in particular the rich calories laden meals. Very soon eating becomes an emotional outlet.
Once you start on affirmations you will encounter some resistance to some affirmations more than others, I suggest you persist with those resistant ones as they may be the most important and effective ones. Often the strongest objections are the ones that hit on the root cause of negative thoughts.

Try with 2 or 3 key affirmations that will appeal to you or seem to have the biggest relevance and start by writing them down on a piece of card, make several of them and keep one with you at all times and place the others in prominent positions around the house, in your bedroom, bathroom and in your car.
Make the affirmations you chose as personal and relevant to you as you possibly can, this way they become YOURS and will have a lot more power.

For affirmations to work you will need:
• Passion = really wanting that result
• Strong emotion= feel the excitement and thrill at bringing this result into your life
• Conviction= you know already that positive results are imminent
• Faith= you totally trust the process

Affirmations are always in the present tense, your mind is very accommodating, a statement always in the future tense will stay that way: in the future.

1. Make your affirmations positive:
“I don’t want to be fat” is negative, your mind will pick up on “fat” and “want” and duly oblige. A better affirmation would be: “I am slim and trim” or “every day and in every way I am getting healthier and trim”, note that by adding “healthier” I make sure that I don’t get slim by getting some nasty disease! Cover your bases, you want to be healthy and fit, so add this to your affirmation. Keep your affirmation positive and in the present and your mind will start to make the necessary changes to accommodate to the truth of this statement.

2. You know already that you have the power to create your own reality; affirmations are the road signs to this new reality.
3. Be as clear and precise as you possibly can and keep a clear focus by affirming that your desired result is in the present.
4. Make sure that you mean it when you say your affirmations, you could make up a song or a rhyming poem, include your name to make it even more powerful. Write your affirmations on your computer desktop and/or draw a picture and keep it where you will see it daily. You could also record them and play your daily favorites on your iPod.
5. Visualize the result and see yourself having achieved your desired outcome.
6. Keep it light, once an affirmation starts to feel stale, move on to a new one.